Charging 4 wheel camper battery

[horseshoeexpedition]

Is it normal that after a 13 hour drive home my battery is only at 60%? I'm not sure what it was at on the start of the drive home but my heater and lights still were working. Seems to me like the truck should have charged it back up within a few hours. What are some of your experiences?

 

[kmcintyre]

Not sure of your setup but I know that in my FWC that the BlueSea isolator won't allow a charge if the camper battery falls below a certain voltage. You might check your battery voltage and see if it's fallen below that threshold but it depends on your setup too.

 

[MidAtlantic]

I'm kinda relieved someone else has experienced this. I have a brand new ATC Bobcat with factory solar panel and often have low charge after a long drive, albeit not 13 hours yet. There's a clicking from the controller when the engine is running, but not all the time. kmcintyre, you might have solved the mystery. But it sounds like it's tough luck if you do fall below the threshold.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

I'm kinda relieved someone else has experienced this. I have a brand new ATC Bobcat with factory solar panel and often have low charge after a long drive, albeit not 13 hours yet. There's a clicking from the controller when the engine is running, but not all the time. kmcintyre, you might have solved the mystery. But it sounds like it's tough luck if you do fall below the threshold.

Give Marty/Jeff at ATC a call.
Frank

 

[alano]

Charging from the truck is a lot like borrowing from a bank: when you need it most it refuses to help you out and when you need it least it is completely available.

Check the wiring between the truck and camper.

Alan

 

[whizbang]

Define normal. It's perfectly normal if your truck is not charging your battery, which it isn't.

If you want it to charge, you need to fix or charge something.

Exactly, what truck do you have? Some trucks have charging circuits. Others don't. I've had 4 different trucks. Only my most recent truck, a 2010 F-150, has a charging circuit.

 

[kmcintyre]

If you hear a click that could be the isolator switching. Easiest way to check is to disconnect the camper battery and use a volt meter to see if the isolator is allowing current to flow or to check your battery voltage. If not, you can top off your battery with a charger to get it above the threshold OR you could bypass the isolator for a bit (that takes a bit more work though).

 

[billharr]

All of the above is why I have removed the "smart" isolator from my Hawk. I still had the old solenoid under the hood of my truck from my 2002 Hawk. Truck running camper charging, truck off batteries are disconnected. I understand how how the isolators work and for the most part they are fine. However if you do run the batteries low they are designed not to connect. I feel we are seeing the isolators as they make the campers plug and play. Without the isolator extra work would need to be done to every truck a camper is installed on. For many of us on this forum that would not be a problem. For most of the customers of FWC and ATC this could be a deterrent to purchase.

 

[DrJ]

If your camper batteries are discharged too low (usually around 12.2-12.4 volts) the isolator will not allow the truck to charge the camper batteries.

Your options then are:
1) to have another source to charge - solar, 120 volt, generator etc...
2) change to a different isolator like Bill has
3) Bypass the isolator

The easiest thing to do is to turn off all electronics in your camper and see if the voltage will increase enough to accept a charge.
Carrying a portable solar panel also really helps here as it can raise the voltage enough for your truck to start charging too.

But it is a very frustrating experience.

It would be great if FWC found a better piece of hardware for this problem.

 

[kmcintyre]

I should also say the isolator not allowing the battery to charge is a "safety" issue and the isolator assumes the battery is bad. It'd be nice if you could adjust the voltage threshold though to something more reasonable. I know some people just put a switch in the cab of their truck so they can manually charge/not-charge the battery. That'd be an easy way to do it if you remember to turn it on. You could even put a volt meter so you'd know what the charge is in the camper battery. That'd be easy enough to do and very effective.

 

[TrapperMike]

Good information to know. Thanks to horseshoe for starting the post and all the great information on the replies. Have learned something today! Looking forward to my new Hawk shell being ready in a month or two and will file this information for future reference. I am installing a battery monitor to keep track of the health of the 2 camper batteries.

 

[Ronanmd1]

I spent a good deal of time dealing with this same issue. Turned out that the isolator was functioning as intended. The smaller gauge wire from the engine battery could not carry the necessary current and was leading to a voltage drop which 'fooled' the isolator into thinking that the charging system needed to be closed. See link below for details.

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/10904-camper-charging-issues/

 

[MidAtlantic]

I spent a good deal of time dealing with this same issue. Turned out that the isolator was functioning as intended. The smaller gauge wire from the engine battery could not carry the necessary current and was leading to a voltage drop which 'fooled' the isolator into thinking that the charging system needed to be closed. See link below for details.

http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/10904-camper-charging-issues/

Wow, that's a great thread. Thanks. Will definitely have a look at what gauge wire was used, but I'm pretty sure the connections were poorly made. Will also call ATC when I'm back stateside, measure voltages, get a better controlller, etc. Thanks for all the great advice.

 

[MidAtlantic]

A late update (things move slowly in my world, because we only get back to the US to use the camper a couple of times a year). Marty at ATC does not think it's the controller, but poor wiring from the truck to the camper. This is a little annoying, because we paid Jay Aronow to transport and install the camper, but I see he is longer a dealer, so no one else should have this experience in future. When I'm back again in September, I'll have my buddy Jeff do a proper job on the truck-side wiring and hope that solves the issue. (He's currently doing a Sprinter conversion - https://www.flickr.com/photos/47169862@N00/albums/72157670968519141 -
and seems to know what he's doing.)

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Just to through in one more opinion, I was having this issue too, and for me it was the stock battery separator. I'm sure the truck battery to camper wiring could have been making my situation worse, but changing to the Blue Sea unit has made a big difference. The "I'm not going to close" voltage is lower (haven't measure that yet), and as long as there is voltage on one side or the other, you can make it close with a switch in the camper. You also can clearly see whether it is open or closed. AND it's bi-directional. So if the solar, or the AC converter charges the camper batteries over 13volts, it closes and will charge the truck batteries too. Very convenient.




Don

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[RC Pilot Jim]

Horses" - What is the age of the battery?

 

[MidAtlantic]

Just to through in one more opinion, I was having this issue too, and for me it was the stock battery separator. I'm sure the truck battery to camper wiring could have been making my situation worse, but changing to the Blue Sea unit has made a big difference. The "I'm not going to close" voltage is lower (haven't measure that yet), and as long as there is voltage on one side or the other, you can make it close with a switch in the camper. You also can clearly see whether it is open or closed. AND it's bi-directional. So if the solar, or the AC converter charges the camper batteries over 13volts, it closes and will charge the truck batteries too. Very convenient.




Don

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Thanks Don. That looks really slick and much better and informative than the stock controller. And the photo is really useful too.